value creation

I'm so into Thai food recently. I think I've eaten Thai for like 3 times in this month. Average of once a week? There are indeed many Thai restaurants (including hawker-style restaurants) in Japan (Tokyo), well of course compared to other ASEAN countries, including Malaysia. I do wish there are more Malaysian restaurants sometimes but I guess Thai food is good enough to fill the pleasure during my rest days.

I had buffet-style lunch at Erawan, Shinjuku the other day, not bad, good view of Shinjuku, except that I was there a little bit late before they close down to prepare dinner. I was at Ikebukuro today and Thai food came into my mind, searched online andI found out there's one in Ikebukuro station. To be exact, 8th floor of Esola, connected to the station. Jim Thompson's Table.

At first I was thinking "what kinda Thai restaurant named after an English name", but Wikipedia-ed and found out Jim Thompson is a popular guy, an American who helped revitalized Thai silk (an also the guy who disappeared in Cameron Highland *wtf). OK, not going to write about him. Will read more about him later.

Anyway, everytime when I had Thai,  I think I had Ga Pao nearly every meal. That's Ga Pao in the picture below (borrowed from some homepage). Rice with fried egg and fried meat (usually chicken or beef) with basil leaves. It's superb.

We all know Tom Yam or Som Tam (Papaya Salad) or Pad Thai is famous. If I drop by Bangkok (damn I want to visit Bangkok again), it's usually (and definitely) Khao Phat (erm just Thai Fried Rice). A few years back when I was in Bangkok, my uncle took me to this stall nearby his house for lunch, and he ordered Ga Pao for me (because I don't really know Thai very well, although trying to learn). Including the drinks, the meal of the day was less than 100baht (which is about 300yen).

Jim Thompson's Table was one main dish + 8 extra dishes buffet style + desserts + drinks (water and Jasmine tea) and I paid 1500 yen. Buffet at Erawan, Shinjuku was 1000yen, all buffet style. JT's Table has a view of Ikebukuro. Erawan has a view of Shinjuku. Erm the stall back in Bangkok had a view of the local lifestyles of Thailand. JT's Table and Erawan are air-conditioned. The stall, fresh air (?) + ceiling fan.

So the point is, I guess it's NOT how much one plate of Ga Pao really cost (considering the cost of the ingredients). It's about how the product is displayed and brought to customers. To create VALUE for customers to WILLINGLY pay. And I guess that's the secret (not very secret actually) of selling a product at a higher price, although it's the same product at different locations.

I guess that's one of the reasons why I'm into hotels, and NOT into manufacturers, to learn how to create soft (?) values. And these soft (?) values (service, brands etc) are not just for hotels or other service industries but also for manufacturing industries.

Scientists or engineers will always want to create scientific values, proving long equations, solving unsolved mysteries. And by the end of the day, the product will be costly and not really feasible. But I guess engineers (including engineer-gonna-be's) should always remember that they are suppose to create values to customers (yup, definitely the MOT way of thinking, and yeah leave the equations to scientists).